UPDATE AT 4:50 PM EST:
PROMOTER BOB ARUM ADMITS PACQUIAO “IS A BIT RELUCTANT” (TO FIGHT YURI FOREMAN)I BUT SAYS “I AM WORKING ON IT.”
Manny Pacquiao may fight in Las Vegas or the Dallas area in March but the opponent won’t be unbeaten WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman.
The Brooklyn resident and rabbinical student was formally rejected Thursday as Pacman’s next foe and replacement for a squashed mega bout against Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Pacman trainer Coach Freddie Roach and agent Michael Koncz teamed up to put the kibosh on Foreman as a foe much to the chagrin of promoter Bob Arum.
Arum thought making a deal for Megamanny to challenge the four or five inch taller but light hitting Foreman was going to be a cinch as both are under the Top Rank banner.
So did crusty Foreman manager Murray Wilson until he got the TR offices in the Howard Hughes Center in Las Vegas Thursday morning.
“I am disgusted,” Wilson told Examiner.com and Boxingconfidential. “Manny fought Oscar de la Hoya, beat him so badly he put him into retirement, and Oscar’s half inch shoter than my guy Yuri is.
“I told them to go bleep themselves. Here was a chance for Pacman to try for a record eighth weight divison world title and they don’t want it now. All of a sudden, Yuri is too tall. Let them go to Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus and find a midget for him to fight then.”
For the record, Megamanny officially stands 5-6 1/2 while Oscar is 5-10 and Foreman is just under six foot at 5-11.
Wilson said that Arum thought he could convince the trainer and the adviser otherwise but they never changed their “No Foreman” tune.
“They just don’t want the fight. They brought to the fountain four times on this fight and now they shut off the water. Do you remember Roach and Manny putting out press releases in December about wanting the fight? I do but now they changed their tune.”
Wilson said he waited two hours in Arum’s office but Roach and Koncz continued to nix the fight.
“Maybe they think Yuri grew, got taller since December 1, I don’t know but it’s ridiculous,” Wilson said.
Arum had previously considered matching Foreman against Pacman’s last foe, Miguel Cotto, in the Puerto Rican Week boxing show in June at Madison Square Garden.
Cotto is in mourning over the sudden death of his father in Puerto Rico.
